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Same-sex marriage has been legal in Thailand since 23 January 2025.[1][2][3][4] Same-sex marriage legislation supported by the government of Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin and major opposition parties was introduced to the National Assembly in November 2023. It was passed by the House of Representatives by 400 votes to 10 on 27 March 2024, and by the Senate in a vote of 130 to 4 on 18 June.[5] The law received royal assent from King Vajiralongkorn on 12 August 2024 and was published in the Royal Gazette on 24 September 2024. It took effect on 23 January 2025, 120 days after promulgation.[6][3] Polling suggests that a significant majority of Thai people support the legal recognition of same-sex marriage.[7][8]
Thailand previously did not recognise any form of same-sex unions.[9][10] The law replaced the terms "men and women" and "husband and wife" in the Civil and Commercial Code with the words "individuals" and "spouses", and also allows same-sex couples to jointly adopt children.[11] Previously, several bills for civil partnerships and same-sex marriage had been introduced to Parliament but had failed to pass. Thailand was the first country in Southeast Asia, the second in Asia after Taiwan and the 38th in the world to legalise same-sex marriage.[12][13][14][15][16][17]
Civil partnerships
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Perspective
In December 2012, the government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra formed a committee to draft legislation providing legal recognition to same-sex couples in the form of civil partnerships.[18] On 8 February 2013, the Rights and Liberties Protection Department and the Parliament's Committee on Legal Affairs, Justice, and Human Rights held a first public hearing on the civil partnership bill, drafted by the committee's chairman, Viroon Phuensaen.[19] By 2014, the bill had bipartisan support, but was stalled due to political unrest in the country.[20] In the second half of 2014, media reported that a draft bill called the Civil Partnership Act (Thai: พระราชบัญญัติคู่ชีวิต, Phra Ratcha Banyat Khuchiwit) would be submitted to the junta-appointed Thai Parliament. It would have granted same-sex couples some of the rights of opposite-sex marriage, but was criticized for increasing the minimum age from 17 to 20, and omitting adoption rights.[21]
In 2017, government officials responded favourably to a petition signed by 60,000 people calling for the legalisation of same-sex civil partnerships. Pitikan Sithidej, the director-general of the Rights and Liberties Protection Department, confirmed that she had received the petition and "would do all she could" to get it passed as soon as possible.[22] The Ministry of Justice convened on 4 May 2018 to begin discussions on a draft civil partnership bill, titled the Same Sex Life Partnership Registration Bill. Under the proposal, same-sex couples would have been able to register as "life partners" and would have been granted some of the rights of marriage.[23][24][25] The bill was discussed in public hearings between 12 and 16 November, where a reported 98 percent of respondents expressed support for the measure.[26][27] The government approved the bill on 25 December 2018.[28][29][30] On 8 July 2020, the new government formed following the 2019 election approved a new draft of the bill and introduced to the National Assembly.[31][32] However, it did not pass before the end of the year.
On 14 February 2023, Bangkok's Dusit district became the first jurisdiction in Thailand to issue partnership certificates (Thai: ใบรับการแจ้งชีวิตคู่, bairap kan chaeng chiwit khu) to same-sex couples. The certificates are not legally binding but can serve as evidence-based documentation of a relationship. The district also announced it would use the certificates to roughly estimate the number of same-sex couples in the district wishing to marry.[33][34]
Same-sex marriage
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Background
Same-sex sexual activity legal
Marriage performed
Marriage recognized
Other type of partnership
Legal guardianships or unregistered cohabitation
Limited foreign recognition (residency rights)
No recognition of same-sex couples
Restrictions on freedom of expression, not enforced
Severe restrictions of association with arrests or detention
Same-sex sexual activity illegal
Prison, not enforced
Prison
Death penalty on books, not enforced
Enforced death penalty
In May 1928, Thai media reported the story of a marriage between two women in Bangkok. One of the spouses was shot dead a month later.[35]
In September 2011, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and the Sexual Diversity Network proposed draft legislation on same-sex marriage and called on the Thai Government to support its legalisation.[36][37] In September 2013, the Bangkok Post reported that an attempt in 2011 by Natee Teerarojjanapong, the president of the Gay Political Group of Thailand, to register a marriage with his male partner had been rejected.[38] Several other couples made similar attempts over the following years.[39]
In 2021, the Constitutional Court ruled that section 1448 of the Civil and Commercial Code defining marriages as only being between "women and men" was constitutional. The court stated that same-sex couples "cannot reproduce, as it is against nature, and that people of those communities are no different to other animals with strange behaviours or physical features". The verdict cited LGBT people as a different "species" that needed to be separated and studied as they are incapable of creating the "delicate bond" of human relationships.[40] The text was criticised by LGBT activists as "sexist and demeaning".[41] The court ruling stated:
Marriage is when a man and a woman are willing to live together, to build a husband and wife relationship to reproduce their offspring, under the morals, traditions, religion and the laws of each society. Marriage is, therefore, reserved for only a man and a woman.
Marriage Equality Act
In June 2020, Deputy Tunyawat Kamolwongwat from the Move Forward Party introduced a bill to legalise same-sex marriage to the National Assembly.[42] A public consultation on the bill was launched on 2 July 2020.[43][44] In June 2022, a couple of same-sex union bills passed their first readings in Parliament. These included the Marriage Equality Bill proposed by the opposition Move Forward Party, which would have amended the Civil and Commercial Code to include couples of any gender, and a government-proposed civil partnership bill, which would have instead introduced civil partnerships as a separate category, granting some, but not all, of the rights given to married couples.[45][46][47] Despite several amendments, neither bill passed Parliament before it was dissolved ahead of the 2023 election.
In November 2023, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin of the Pheu Thai Party announced that his government had approved a draft same-sex marriage law,[48] which Parliament began to debate on 21 December 2023.[49] Besides the government bill, three additional versions proposed by the Move Forward Party and the Democrat Party were considered.[50][51] All four bills passed overwhelmingly by 369 votes to 10 on 21 December 2023,[52] with the House of Representatives approving the formation of an ad-hoc committee to combine the four draft bills into one over 15 days before further debates in 2024.[11] On 27 March 2024, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a unified draft law by 400 votes to 10 in third reading, with two abstentions and three not voting.[53][54] The bill passed its first reading in the Senate on 2 April by a 147 to 4 vote.[55][56] On 29 May, the chair of the ad-hoc committee announced that the Senate was expected to hold a parliamentary session on 18 June to vote on the bill.[57][58] That day, the bill was approved by the Senate in its final reading without amendments, therefore requiring no further action from the House of Representatives.[59] It received royal assent from King Vajiralongkorn on 12 August 2024 and was published in the Royal Gazette on 24 September 2024. The law came into effect on 23 January 2025.[60][61] Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra welcomed the promulgation on social media.[62] The enactment of the Marriage Equality Act (Thai: พระราชบัญญัติสมรสเท่าเทียม, Phraratchabanyat Somrot Thaothiam) made Thailand the first country in Southeast Asia and the second in Asia after Taiwan to legalise same-sex marriage.
Ahead of the law's implementation, Bangkok Pride leader Ann Chumaporn stated that the organisation would work with the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration to organise a mass wedding ceremony on 23 January 2025,[63] with the goal of having 1,448 same-sex couples participate, symbolising the Civil and Commercial Code section amended by the Marriage Equality Act. Activists also urged communities in other provinces to organize similar mass wedding ceremonies.[64] Prime Minister Shinawatra invited several same-sex couples to the Government House to celebrate their marriages, writing on Instagram: "January 23, 2025 will be the day we all make history together, the love of everyone is legally recognised with honour and dignity."[65] According to the Ministry of Interior, more than 1,754 same-sex couples married on the first day of legalization,[66][67] with about 650 in Bangkok.[39]
Public opinion
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![Thumb](#/media/File:"สมรสเท่าเทียม"_Bangkok_Pride_2022.jpg)
Thai opinion polls have consistently favoured legal recognition of same-sex marriages.[68][69][70] According to a 2019 YouGov poll of 1,025 respondents, 63 percent of Thai people supported the legalisation of same-sex partnerships, with 11 percent against and 27 percent preferring not to answer. 69 percent of people aged 18 to 34 supported civil partnerships, with 10 percent opposed. Legalisation was supported by 56 percent of those aged between 35 and 54 (33 percent opposed), and 55 percent of those aged 55 and over (13 percent opposed). 66 percent of those with university degrees were in favour (10 percent opposed), and 57 percent of those without university degrees (12 percent opposed). 68 percent of those with a high income supported civil partnerships (7 percent opposed), and 55 percent of those with a low income (13 percent opposed). 68 percent of women responded in favour (7 percent opposed), as did 57 percent of men (14 percent opposed).[71]
According to a 2022 poll by the National Institute of Development Administration (NIDA), 80 percent of Thais supported same-sex marriage.[72] A June–September 2022 Pew Research Center poll showed that 60 percent of Thai people supported same-sex marriage (24 percent "strongly" and 36 percent "somewhat"), while 32 percent opposed (18 percent "strongly" and 14 percent "somewhat"). Support was highest among Buddhists at 68 percent, but lowest among Muslims at 14 percent. This level of support was the second highest among the six Southeast Asian countries polled, behind Vietnam at 65 percent, but ahead of Cambodia at 57 percent, Singapore at 45 percent, Malaysia at 17 percent, and Indonesia at 5 percent.[7] A government survey conducted between 31 October and 14 November 2023 showed that 96.6 percent of the Thai public supported the same-sex marriage bill.[8][73] Opposition to same-sex marriage was mainly concentrated among Thailand's small Muslim minority.[74]
See also
References
External links
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